Food | #ICook | Steak Fingers with Onion Dipping Sauce

When I saw the beautiful fresh qurban meat that we received on Eiduladha yesterday, I don't know why I immediately thought of making this dish; even though I've never seen the full recipe.

It's inspired by Ree Drummond or the Pioneer Woman as she is famously known on her blog and Food Network cooking show.

I'm using the word 'inspired' because I'm afraid I did not follow her recipe 100%; I just basically remember how the finished product looked like on tv and simply recreated it based on my gut feeling :P. If anyone ever tried my version and it's less than good, the last thing I want is to associate it with the PW coz she's a great cook ^_^.

But since I find my recreation of the PW's finger steaks turned out to be so darn good and yummy, I thought I'd share my way of making it anyway he he. 

As always, I didn't measure my stuff, especially when it's this simple;

I used:

Fresh beef, cut into fingers

Wheat flour

1 egg

Dried mixed herbs, ground black pepper and salt for seasoning

Oil for cooking

For the sauce,

1/2 red onion, sliced

Some butter

Some flour

Some water 

Some milk

Salt and sugar to taste

Look at how gorgeous and fresh the meat is; literally only few hours after slaughter; Alhamdulillah

Cooking it:

1. Pound the beef fingers to tenderize the meat; I just used the pestle he he.

That's my stone pestle ^^

2. Pour some oil into a frying pan just enough for shallow frying and heat the oil on medium.

3. Meanwhile, prepare the dredging station; break the egg into a dish and beat and pour the flour (about a cup) into another with some dried herbs, black pepper and salt. Mix well.

4. To fry, dredge each finger into the flour mixture first, then into the egg and finally the flour again and into the hot oil.

5. Fry until golden and crispy.

Someone actually thought that the crust tasted like Kentucky Fried Chicken's, not kidding ha ha 

6. To make the sauce, caramelize the sliced onion with about 1 tbsp of butter. If you have white onion, use that; I just used whatever I could find in my kitchen ^^

8. Sprinkle some flour into the caramelized onion, about 1 tbsp as well. Stir well to toast the flour and to avoid it from getting lumpy.

Caramelized onion with flour added to it

9. Pour some water just enough to deglaze the pan and cover the onion. Leave to simmer.

10. Pour in some milk (depending on how creamy you want) .

11. Leave to bubble again, stir well and turn off the heat when the sauce has reduced to the right consistency.

This was actually slightly browner than the one above as some of the liquid has reduced

12. Season with salt and sugar to taste.

That's it ;)

I've never fried beef before because I thought the meat would get so tough. 

Surprisingly, this turned out to be so tender, juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside that everybody enjoyed it; all the meat pounding finally paid off. 

It's so yummy I ended up making 3 batches of steak fingers within 24 hours ha ha .. Thanks Ree Drummond, you have just added another color to my culinary life ^^